[Trevor]

On 13/10/2017 1:15 AM, Mike Rivers wrote:
On 10/12/2017 12:57 AM, Trevor wrote:
Well established definition here. But as with everything else in life,
people often prefer their own definitions. Still you are the first
I've heard deny the existence of the "virtual multi-track" concept.
The "virtual" part is not a redundant concept for most of us
*especially* anyone who ever does live recording.

You're reading what you want to argue with into what I've written. I
never denied the existence of the concept of "virtual multitrack."

Good, so what exactly were you complaining about in my original comment?
(that you have deleted)


People were recording time code on analog tape and adding virtual tracks
(as many as the available hardware would allow) by synchronizing MIDI
sequencers to time code. In this case, audio tracks were recorded on
tape, time code drove a sequencer running on a computer, which in turn
played sounds on MIDI-controlled synthesizers.

Do you have a reference for anyone calling them "virtual tracks"? (other
than yourself) Never heard it myself. Just as when tape decks were
synchronised to give extra REAL tracks, NOT virtual.



If there were analog tracks available, the synthesizers could be
recorded on them for convenience. Otherwise, the synthesizer outputs
went into more mixer channels - THOSE were the "virtual tracks."

Not IMO, they were simply hardware synced instruments. But you seem to
have your own definition that you are welcome to.


So, yeah, virtual tracks, one or many in a project, have been around for
a long time, longer than MIDI actually. Today, however, we do things
differently, eliminating (most of) the hardware synthesizers and letting
the same computer that's recording "real" audio produce the "virtual"
audio in its copious spare time.

As I said all along, "virtual tracks" have little to do with MIDI,
(other than they CAN be MIDI) since you can now have hundreds of virtual
tracks of purely acoustic recordings. Basically what we had to do in
overdub with degraded sound quality every time a track was copied to add
something on top (and then could no longer be edited separately) can now
be done on a new track even if you only have a 2 channel interface.


But, honestly, I've never heard anyone use the term "virtual multitrack"
until you came along in this discussion.

Amazing, but irrelevant. I would have thought the concept was obvious to
anyone in the industry, but there you go.

Trevor.